daughter

luckily i was done with the run just minutes before the rain. so to all my angelenos our week of winter is coming. to all my friends from the other coast. the polar vortex is apparently here and my beautiful sky is gloomy and crying.

the sound of rain will obviously not help the “insomnia”. I’m so annoyed, and that seems to wake me up even more. On a good note like I mentioned about earlier I finally ran more than 1 mile and actually felt pretty good about my run.

“how’s the weather in your neck of the woods?” For those just visiting LA, I apologize I assure you this is a fluke.

Like this:

i woke up this morning still not shooting on all cylinders. if you’ve been reading the blog for at least a few days you know the reason. short version it’s a combination of some adult liquid calories over the weekend and my oreo binge last night.

after a shower and other morning routine stuff i woke up the boy and well he was tired to and my first reaction was less than awesome. i felt terrible the moment the words left my mouth. it wasn’t his fault that i’d made some poor decisions. not to mention he was acting just exactly how i felt on the inside (if you ask my wife i was acting like that on the outside too).

luckily i was dropping him off and so I had another half hour to first of all apologize. i’m no above apologizing to my son. i could tell he was still not certain why i had snapped but we talk like we always do and he knew dad was back on board with our normal fun.

I dropped him off and drove to work. when i drop him off i have an extra long drive and so i switch through quite a few radio stations. I heard someone reading a blog/article about being a perfect parent. they tried to talk it up only to get back to the point of it being incredibly difficult to live up to perfect standards.

i immediately thought of something i’d heard before “THE ONLY TIME YOU’RE A PERFECT PARENT IS BEFORE YOU HAVE CHILDREN”. I couln’t help but smile at the thought that I had just messed something up royally that morning but that ultimately it wasn’t the end of the world. The day would go on. Not I nor anyone else would be a perfect parent and for the most part parents do the best with what they have.

I will always think back on the first day I met either one of my children and wonder how soon after i met them did I mess something up. i will say that lessons learned from meeting the boy has made me a better father to the girl and meeting the girl has made me think about the man i’ve become and how different i am to the man who met the boy.

i’ll end this post with another i’m sorry to my son. i try very hard to not stress out on life and even more so to keep your life as peaceful as possible since life will be hard as it is with out your dad adding to the crazyness.

Well at least until I heard this one stirring. She’s been sitting with a bit of assistance for some time now but today we realized how ready she is to sit on her own as well as how much of a character she already is.

I shot off about 100 shots because of course she hears the shutter sound from the phone and she becomes a little ham. Big cheesing like a pro already at just shy of 7 months. So I take enough to get past the posed smile and capture something like this. I’ve done it a 1000 times with her brother and now I was so happy to have one of my daughter as well.

I wanted to post on FB and have a caption contest because I can only imagine what thoughts are behind this warm expression. Care to take any guesses.

Like this:

well there it is. i’m 33. different birthdays in my life stand out in my mind.

I feel like Forrest Gump when he talks about it being funny what someone remembers about their life.

I remember turning 10. I was happy to be in the double digits.

15 was a big year, I mean if I was jewish I’d be a man and if I was a girl I’d have a quincianera and be a woman right.

of course 18 was nice and with my chosen career path I was an adult and able to make those decisions.

I of course remember turning 21, I was away from my wife and I was also away from her at 22 in a land far away.

After that it’s all a blur and turning 30 was difficult but I’m on OK with it now. 33 was a great birthday. It started with a day of work but the kids were then when I was off. After getting them ready we met the wife at Bucca di Beppo for some dinner. I couldn’t/wouldn’t have had a better day. What a day!

Like this:

On the west side of N Harper blvd in West LA/Hollywood Tuesdays are street cleaning days.

I did not know that when I parked about 15 minutes early for work. I pulled out my book and read yet another chapter. It was an incredible book and well despite a good read. It turned into a fairly expensive one because it distracted me from reading the clearly visible signs.

Since I was in speed reading mode (Which works in a book because it easier to pick up context) I completely blew past Tuesday and thought I read Thursday and even awesome about the prime real estate parking spot I grabbed.

It turns out 15 minutes after parking the ticket wielding officer was typing away at my ticket. I watch from afar and though I’d at least make the parking ticket worth it and keep that sidewalk. It’s for $73 So the longer I stayed there the cheaper I suppose the parking was.

I drove off, and swear to you that I was supposed to get some rest today. In hopes that tomorrow I’m less of a Zombie. Even more so since I’ll be working from home. Well for now I guess I better find the check book. Damn parking enforcement.

My wife had to work late today. Any other night that sucks but it’s doable/bearable. Tonight though k had a fundraiser for his school at El Torito. I’ve been taking care of both of them for some time but not in a public setting like that.

I was already behind the curve. I started the afternoon with no formula and not rested enough for the baby. We got to the restaurant and even the host kid was amazed that I was alone with both kids. Repeatedly asked if we were waiting for mom. I of course said we were but my wife already knew she was just not going to be able to make it.

I ordered the fajitas and I wondered how i would deal with the blazing skillet. I got K some chicken fingers because of course that’s what he’ll get at a Mexican restaurant. Well the baby was awesome and well behaved. I actually ate and enjoyed my food. When mom comfirmed she wouldn’t be making it we made our way home.

Like this:

This weeks book has 487 pages. Since I’m dividing that in 7 days I have to read at least 70 pages a day if I want to stay on track. The number itself isn’t an issue. I can easily read more than that and have actually had to pace myself especially on weeks when the daily # is only 5o or less.

Today the issue was silencing the rest of the world enough so that I could hear myself reading it in my mind. I really think that because I was so tired from the weekend it made this task even more difficult. Not impossible but it was really trying.

I went out for my mile to keep the running streak alive. Day 68 wasn’t too bad. I fought the tired legs by wearing new shoes that totally did the job. Then got back and after the kids and G settled into bed finally sat down with my book. I’m stopping at around 425 tonight. It will all end tomorrow and then what am I going to read?

I asked for suggestions via FB and it seems my friends don’t read much or don’t think I’ll like whatever they’re reading. I asked for feed back on this blog and several of you suggested some book that I’ve already read. I again ask for a little bit of help and I’d like to know what you guys thought of them. Spoilers are far less likely when telling me about a book than it would be if you were telling me about a movie but still I ask you use caution. Happy reading to you all.

Before I forget. Our little bundle of joy is 6 months today. I can not believe what a difference a year has made to our lives. Last year around this time I didn’t even know if it would be a boy or a girl that I would hold and now I can’t even imagine life with out that beautiful smile looking at me. Here’s to many more my sweet little girl.